Will Rising Oil Prices Kill Economic Recovery?

[kramwest1]

Hmm?

 

[PhilsFan]

Economic recovery was a myth to begin with.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

It will have a ripple effect in so many areas-it already is doing that. Food prices, consumer spending. Unemployment just went under 9 %, but gas prices will probably lead to a higher rate next month. Even if people adjust, the psychological effect is just as bad as how it hits the pocketbook.

Summer travel will be killed.

 

[financeguy]

^ Agree with both of the above.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

It's certainly having a negative effect on my family. My sister's fiance works in a nearby town, 45 minutes away. You can imagine how much money he has to save for gas alone each week, money that could well be put to other practical, necessary uses. My mom has to spend a lot to fill up her car, too.

It's not the only thing that would put a massive chink in our attempt at a recovery, but it's certainly one of the biggies. And yet for all our bellyaching about the high gas prices, when people suggest ideas to change that, nobody actually seems to want to get on board and DO anything to help fix this problem. So in the end, we really have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Angela

 

[kramwest1]

We have two cars right now, but my lease is up at the end of this month, and I think we are going to try to just have one car for the summer.

The tough choice is that the car I'm going to turn in is a Honda Civic Hybrid. I get 45 mpg with it in the summer. (It's a shit car in a snowy Minnesota winter though, even if it gets 35 mpg in the snow.)

Our other car is a 2002 Honda CR-V. It gets an average of 22 mpg.
I think the savings by going down to one car will be great, but I worry about looking like a fool by turning in a Hybrid before we hit $5 per gallon in the U.S.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

My family would love to get a hybrid. We can't afford one right now, though. We can't afford newer, better-running cars of any kind.

Angela

 

[kramwest1]

My family would love to get a hybrid. We can't afford one right now, though. We can't afford newer, better-running cars of any kind.

Angela

I'm going to have to put my money where my mouth is and get a decent bicycle for the summer with some good saddle baskets. For too long, our second car was mainly a grocery-getter.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I hate to say it, but...expect another big jump - forces loyal to Gadhafi struck an oil pipeline and oil storage facility today.